Electronic commerce has become commonplace and as the value of such commerce has increased so has the sophistication of criminal activities. Electronic on-line printing of tickets, stamps and other indicia of value allows these items to be printed in the comfort of one's home or office. This relative privacy presents a tempting target for those with a larcenous bent.
In one scenario, a fraudulent user (fraudster) simply uses a stolen or otherwise invalid credit card to order the downloaded material that is printed on paper located at the fraudster's premises. In some situations, one needs to be a member or otherwise have a log-in identity in order to print the desired material. To overcome this requirement, fraudulent user's create a log-on, download what they want, and then stop using the log-on. The next time they desire to print the tickets, postage indicia, etc., they create a new log-on identity using a different credit facility, which often proves to be stolen or otherwise improper.
In other scenarios, the fraudulent user logs onto the system and obtains something of value, for example, a downloaded postage indicia for printing, either immediately or at a subsequent time, onto stock material at the customer's location. In some situations, the transaction turns out to be fraudulent in that the user's credit is not acceptable, the credit facility that was used turns out to be not acceptable, or for any of a number of other reasons the transaction is determined to be improper. One problem with these types of fraudulent situations is that each transaction is independent of previous transactions in that nothing is being shipped to a permanent address and thus each transaction is transient. Attempts to identify the computer (or other electronic address information) are often futile since fraudsters have a facility for masking their electronic identity. In addition, certain intermediary systems, such as ISP providers, often modify (or allow a user to modify) their real addresses and even their machine identities (MAC identifications).
Another method for preventing recurring fraud from the same user is to block the account (log-on) from that user. However, the fraudster then opens a new account using a new phony id. Often, when promotions are being offered it is customary to limit such promotions to “one per customer”. In these situations users are tempted to “fake” their identity in order to obtain more than one promotion.